Dual Action Tactics, Wooster, a weapons training facility

Life experience leads Booths to start fire arms training facility

By PAUL LOCHER
Staff WriterPublished: February 17, 2013 4:00AM

WOOSTER -- It happened eight years ago, but Jason Booth says he will never get over it -- the gun pointing right in his face as he was robbed, wondering if the assailant actually would pull the trigger.

The incident scarred him for life. It also catapulted him into a growing business he and his wife, Valerie, jointly run at their 40-acre property in Plain Township.

"I knew after the robbery that I didn't want to be a victim ever again," said Booth. So 6 1/2 years ago he and Valerie joined a gun club in West Salem. Booth said at the beginning, he knew little about guns and what he often refers to as the "gun culture" in the region. But he learned fast, and enjoyed shooting and working with guns.

"We started shooting competitively," he said. "It was habit-forming."

Asked if he initially was afraid of guns, Booth said, "I was intimidated before I got involved with them. Once I picked one up and started shooting, I faced my fear and it didn't take me long to become comfortable with the idea.

"We got more involved in it and met up with another training group we worked with," and through which he got his carry permit. Eventually he and Valerie became assistant instructors, with Valerie much involved in women-only training.

Booth said after he received his instructor's certification from the National Rifle Association, he "started to go out on my own," and last July conducted the first class at the Ickes Road location.

After that, he and Valerie, along with close friend Joshua Heiney, who serves as an assistant instructor, began to put a business together they call Dual Action Tactics.

Booth said the name is play on words since some guns have dual actions and because creating the business required dual action on the part of the couple.

While the majority of the shooting classes they teach are held on the two ranges at their property, they occasionally hold some at the Ashland Gun Club, and travel regionally to conduct concealed-carry classes.

Dual Action Tactics teaches three NRA-sanctioned classes, those being NRA basic pistol, personal protection in the home and home firearms safety. They also teach concealed-carry classes and defensive pistol classes.

In addition, the business puts a special emphasis on youth training, while its Women on Target classes are exclusively for new women shooters. Booth said one of its fun activities is a Zombie Apocalypse course in which closely supervised shooters use multiple kinds of guns to shoot attacking Zombies.

"Safety is always the No. 1 thing," said Heiney, a six-year active-duty military man who says he "grew up in the gun culture" and now works at a north-end store with Valerie. "We're huge on having fun with it. We find that if you give a student a way to have fun, it removes the intimidation factors."

"Women make up a huge number of our students," said Valerie Booth. "We run a lot of women-only emergency preparedness classes."

She said that DAT puts on private events for groups, including corporate classes in which women from a company learn basic shooting skills to defend themselves.

Jason Booth said students come primarily from throughout Wayne, Holmes and Ashland counties, but also from Mount Vernon, Danville, Toledo, Elyria, Canton, Massillon, Akron and Medina.

"We never want to do huge classes," Valerie Booth said. "We like to keep it personal. We want everybody to have input and to have their questions answered."

She said the business has had 75 people go through its 12-hour concealed-carry class -- 10 hours in the classroom and two hours on the range -- and about 65 women go through Women on Target.

"These invariably turn into social events," she said. "The women come as students and leave as friends. We've been on a good roll here because of that. We get women involved in the culture. They come in here almost in fear, but when they leave they're smiling from ear to ear. I love teaching people. I'm very passion driven."

Heiney agreed, noting, "Our students come as strangers, but they leave as friends. It's a very personal thing to us. We're doing something we love, and we try to make teaching people to defend themselves a fun thing. It's fun to watch their confidence build through the sessions. Giving people the tools to protect themselves can change their lives."

Heiney said they teach a basic gun safety program for kids because "it provides an opportunity for youths to be educated in a safe environment. We get kids to move from a fear of guns to a respect for them, and to be responsible in the gun culture."

Valerie Booth said DAT offers free gun training for women who have a personal protection order from law enforcement because they are being harassed by a spouse or boyfriend.

Jason Booth said his experience with an armed robber changed his life.

"And it can happen to anybody, and it does every day," he said. "We want to give people the tools and training for something they hope never happens to them. We want to get people involved in learning how to defend themselves."

Jason, who works for a home oxygen supply service, said DAT wants to be involved with more than shooting classes, and recently participated in a Shoot Out Hunger food drive in Mount Vernon.

For more information about the business, visit the DAT web site as dualactiontactics.com.

Reporter Paul Locher can be reached at 330-682-2055 or plocher@the-daily-record.com.